United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an end to the violence in Somalia, where hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced to flee their homes.

"The Secretary-General is gravely concerned about the continuing heavy fighting in Mogadishu, which has reportedly killed more than 250 people and forced more than 320,000 from their homes in the past six days alone," spokesman Michele Montas told reporters in New York.

More